The invention relates to a robot which is operable in a work mode in which part of the robot is moved at a speed at which there is a risk of injury to a person if they collide with the part. The robot comprises a safeguarding apparatus which deactivates the work mode if the person is situated in an action range of the movable part. The invention also includes a method for controlling the robot. By way of example, the robot can be used in a handling system.
Handling systems and similar modern workspaces ever more frequently require situations in manufacturing in which efficient cooperation between a person and a robot is required. In general, the closer the cooperation can be, the more efficient it is. However, working in a common work space is linked with great risks for the person. Commercially available industrial robots may have such a high mass of the movable parts and generate such a movement speed of same that the risk of injury in the case of a collision with a person is very high for said person. In order to ensure protection here, provision can be made for identification of when a person comes too close to the robot by means of a sensor system of the robot (e.g. proximity sensors, light curtains or cameras). Optionally, the robot is then slowed down, stopped or moved away in order thus to defuse the dangerous situation.
In order to reliably preclude the danger of a collision, the corresponding safety distance, where the robot is slowed down if it is breached, must be selected to be comparatively large. Only this ensures that there is enough time for the robot to be able to slow down or deflect the part in good time even in the worst case scenario, where the person enters the action range of a movable part of the robot very quickly, for example because they stumble. However, since such a worst case only occurs very seldom and significantly smaller safety distances would suffice in the normal case, such safety precautions mean that the work mode of the robot, in which it performs its work unhindered with the highest possible speed, is often unnecessarily interrupted.